


Late Night Talks Between Friends

by Snowblaze



Category: The Rookie (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Feelings Realization, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Jackson West Has to do Everything Around Here, Oblivious, Realization, Tucy, chenford, everyone knows, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 09:44:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21034232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snowblaze/pseuds/Snowblaze
Summary: Lucy and Jackson have a similar conversation, six months later.Based on the conversation between Lucy and Jackson in 2x03, "The Bet," where Lucy questions her reasoning of everything.





	1. Lucy Doesn't Know

**Author's Note:**

> This chapter is one of the two fics I wrote for this scenario.  
Yep. I'm trash.  
  
(Also I have migrated some of the tags into the notes. I'm still struggling with what's supposed to go where, my apologies.)  
  
This was literally written in a rush after I watched the episode today (the chemistry is reAL) And apparently some peeps don't like Rachel. I don't mind her but Eric liked a tweet of someone calling her fake so... *shrug emoji*

Lucy looked at the article in front of her, eyes swiping over the words but not really reading.

“Lucy? You with me?” Jackson said, breaking her from her daze.

“Yeah, sorry. Long day.” Lucy lied as she came back to the real world. She set her phone facedown on her kitchen table and sighed.

“What's wrong? Sad I'll be moving out next week?” Jackson teased, before seeing the melancholic look on Lucy's face grow. “Hey, what's wrong?”

“Why do I feel so terrible whenever I see Tim and his girlfriend? I understood why I felt wrong when he was with Rachel, since she used him and all, but he's had other girlfriends since and each one just  _ irks _ me,” Lucy explained quickly, trying to get all her thoughts out in a coherent manner.

Jackson stared at her, confused. “You– you don't know?”

“Know what?” Lucy was even more puzzled.

“Oh my God, I have to do all the work around here,” Jackson said, exasperated. “Lucy, you're jealous.”

Lucy shook her head in bewilderment. “Jealous of what?”

“Of them! Of Ashley, of Carmen, of Rachel, of all of them!”

“Wh– why would I be jealous of Tim's girlfriends?”

Jackson almost screamed. How did she not know? He'd known for ages and assumed she knew too but was just doing a sucky job of hiding it.

“You're in love with Tim!”

Lucy's mouth dropped open. “I– I am not!”

“Yes, you are. And I will not just sit here and wait another six months for you to come around. So, please, take this and try and accept it. You know it's true, I know it's true, the entire department knows it's true. So please, think about it.”

Lucy's heart skipped a beat. Jackson yelling the words at her caused the realization of a lifetime to smack her straight in the face. It made sense. They had this weird chemistry, but ever since the virus incident it had grown. She had thought it was friendship, so she had initially built on it by trying to make both of them mutually happy and generate a working friendship. But it had changed even more to a different and odd dynamic between the two of them… Was it love? 

“I– am I? I mean– I– oh my God, I am in love with Tim.”

"Finally!"


	2. Lucy Does Know

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the second AU! Thanks y'all!

As of 19 minutes prior, the rookies were finally free.

Their probationary period had officially ended, and they no longer had teaching officers analyzing their every move and writing evaluations of their shifts. They were free to work on their own and at their own pace.

Lucy was initially planning on drinking in celebration, but she had taken one shot and was raising a second to her lips when a cloud of emotions stabbed at her heart. She saw the newly-discerned explanation for her emotional storm in her peripheral vision.

She recognized the emotions which had been plaguing her randomly the past few months: a mix of sadness, anger, and envy. She finally put together the puzzle pieces of her brain and realized why she had those feelings, but the reason terrified her.

Jackson saw her hesitate in her action and, concerned, leaned over and whispered, “hey, are you okay?”

Lucy glanced at him and finished her shot before nodding. “I’m fine.”

Jackson could see right through her, and she knew it.

“You want to talk about it?” He asked.

“Later,” she responded before getting up and joining John at the bar, grabbing more drinks.

Later came in the form of three hours before Lucy found herself lounging on the beige couch in Jackson’s apartment. She knew she got recklessly emotional when she drank, so she had one more shot and steered clear of alcohol the rest of the time they were at the bar. Jackson knew he would have to be mostly sober to console his fellow officer, so he had a couple more beers before they took an Uber to his place.

“I think I finally realized what’s wrong,” Lucy broke the silence.

Jackson seemed to let out a sigh of relief at her revelation.

She stared at him curiously. “Why are you relieved?”

“So I don’t have to pretend I don’t know why you’re out of it,” Jackson replied.

Lucy was shocked. How did he know? Especially before she did? Was it that obvious? So much for making detective if she could not even see that.

“What clued you in?” she asked honestly. She knew why she realized, one sticky situation too many bringing the idea to the forefront of her mind. But that notion had only happened recently, and Jackson was acting as if he had known since the dawn of time.

“Hmm, where to begin. Well, on your first day–”

“–First day?!”

He laughed, loudly. “I’m messing with you. It took me a while to realize. But I think it was when there was that hemorrhagic fever scare and you told me you were fine but Tim was inside and you were so scared. I had suspected, but when you yelled for him when he collapsed, it set it in stone.”

Lucy’s mouth fell open in shock. “Seven months? You've known for seven months?”

“In my defense, Lopez and Bishop knew for longer.”

Lucy felt as if the world was distorting. How was she so blind? How did everyone else know before she did? She felt as if her entire brain had decided to take a leave of absence ever since she started her probationary period at Mid-Wilshire and had finally returned in that moment.

“How did– they did– what?” She managed to say, exasperated.

“Lopez said she saw it in the way Tim looked at you, and how you looked right back. Talia said it was in how you challenged him. They said they knew it would be love, ‘right then and there,’” Jackson answered her unasked question.

Lucy reluctantly nodded with a sigh of defeat. “Since day one, huh? I guess everyo– wait, you said love. This isn’t love. This is me having a stupid crush on my T.O.,” she remarked, her nerves evident in her words.

Jackson quirked an eyebrow at her. “It was a stupid crush twelve months ago. It isn’t like that anymore. There isn’t just this crazy chemistry between you two. It’s grown; it’s changed. It's love, whether you'd like to admit it or not.”

Lucy knew it was. She really did. Denial had saved her from the truth for an entire year, but it was now shoved in her face and she had no other choice than to accept it.

Hesitantly, she murmured, “I'm in love with Tim.”

Relief and anxiety tugged at her heart. She finally admitted it, but at what cost? It’s not like–

“You know he’s in love with you too, right?”

“What?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this moment, everyone in the department cheers, "FINALLY!"


End file.
